Yuji Naka — former head of Sonic Team — launched a brand new recreation underneath his one-man studio Prope referred to as Shot2048. Naka was the lead programmer for the unique Sonic the Hedgehog (which appears to be playable in every single place these days) and most not too long ago left his quick keep at Square Enix to spend his time engaged on this hyper-casual title for cellular.

The purpose in Shot2048 (App Store, Google Play) is to roll cube to the top of an alley and mix (multiply) sufficient like-numbers to create at the least one die valued at 2048. It did take me about 5 makes an attempt to win my first recreation… and about 4 tries to grasp the sport. There aren’t a lot by way of directions aside from this iOS App Store description (although admittedly, after studying it once more post-play, it is smart now):

The objective is to shot the identical quantity and make 2048.
The objective is to shot the identical quantity to make 2048, however goal for extra.
Tap to maneuver the quantity left or proper, and launch your finger to fireplace the quantity.
If you hit the identical quantity, they are going to be mixed and the numbers will likely be added.
The recreation is over when the numbers cease within the pink recreation over space within the foreground.

It’s a neat concept for a fast time-pass and doesn’t really require a lot by way of math ability because you solely actually need to match colours and preserve the cube out of the taking pictures zone. The stage will get a bit tougher as too many cube refill the play zone; ought to the cube keep within the taking pictures zone for too lengthy — about 5 seconds — the sport will likely be over. The physics can get kinda wonky, however you’ll must rely on some toppling to get the cube within the again to mix.

Screenshots by Umar Shakir / The Verge

Naka’s recreation takes clear inspiration from different fashionable cellular puzzlers like, uh, 2048 (which has its personal historical past of cloning) or one other comparable title we observed referred to as Chain Cube.

The free-to-play recreation is ad-heavy however will allow you to take away the advertisements for $5.99. Also, if you happen to’re having a troublesome time successful, the sport will gladly take $0.99 to offer you 5 extra tries. I used to be additionally requested by the app to trace me, which I declined (although, as not too long ago reported, it’s not at all times a full off change).

Naka constructed the sport on Unity and says that is the primary recreation he developed alone, touting his 37-year profession within the online game trade. The inaugural Prope group (2006) consisted of Naka and 10 former Sega staff concentrating on the informal waggle gaming growth, beginning with Let’s Tap for the Wii. Without a group, Naka needed some help getting leaderboards to work for Shot2048 — so he requested for (and acquired) assistance on Twitter.